GAMES WITH THIS MECHANIC
Games with permadeath
Games With Permadeath on Steam start with A Bullet for a Swarm, Abyssal Breeder's Journal, Asgard's Fall — Viking Survivors.
A run is the save. Knowledge persists; the character, the floor, and usually the inventory do not. You walk back to the first room carrying only what you understood — a pattern, a shop rule, a boss tell — and that is the entire bank.
By genre
How permadeath changes a game
Tension lives in the current attempt because the attempt has nowhere to cash out. Players slow down, hoard, and restart more honestly than they do in a roguelite, which is why Balatro and Noita feel meaner than Dead Cells even when the controls are simpler. The moment a hamlet starts paying you, the structure has already changed genre, and this page is here to keep that line visible.